POPULATION NEEDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1938, Page 7

POPULATION NEEDS

STATEMENT BY PREMIER COMMENT ON BRITISH REPORT. DEVELOPMENT OF SECONDARY INDUSTRIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. To bring people into New Zealand . without any proper plan for their occupation would be stupid and repeating the insanities of the past, declared the Prime Minister (the Rt Hon M. J. Savage) when his attention was called to the cabled summary of the Overseas Settlement Board of the British Government (published yesterday). “We are just as anxious as any Empire Settlement League can be to'bring people to the Dominion,” continued Mr Savage. “We cannot hold an empty territory for ever. The only way to hold it will be by population and by bringing people here to fill places that have been made for them.” •Mr Savage pointed out that this would involve New Zealand’s development both on the primary and secondary side, but this could not be done unless there was some security from the British Government that . Britain would take the increased amount of primary products that would result. He hoped it would be possible to enter into some kind of working arrangement with Britain on the lines of his statement prior to the last Imperial Conference: “We will spend every shilling we get from you in buying your goods and services. Are you ready to make a deal?” To tackle the problem properly would need a fairly substantial amount of money, continued Mr Savage. The Government had the responsibility for preparing the way for immigrants and for that reason had been considering the possibility of getting substantial tracts of good land, not in the backblocks or away from railways, and using modern machinery to bring them into cultivation so that there would be immediate results. This land would be available for people with verylittle capital. Secondary industries would have to be developed and this was a bigger thing than a tariff question. Asked for his opinion on the suggestion that if immigrants were not available from Britain they could be obtained from other countries of similar stock, Mr Savage questioned whether it was impossible to get them from Britain because he knew that some of our best farmers were formerly miners. “Anyway,” concluded the Prime Minister, “if we cannot get them from the Old Country we would take them from Denmark or some other suitable country. They must be a suitable type and we must prepare the way.”